Despite the persistent shortage of steel nationwide, state-run China Steel Corp (
"We understand the difficulties for certain industries, but to halt the exports may generate trade disputes with other countries," said Chen Yu-sung (
However, in response to questions from lawmakers yesterday in the legislature's Economics and Energy Committee, Chen said the company could cut "exports from 30 percent to 24 percent" of output.
The cost of raw materials for making steel have risen sharply since the second half of last year as the global economy recovered, forcing steelmakers to raise prices.
Strong demand from China has particularly put pressure on prices of steel products, which have surged by between 33 percent and 40 percent from a year ago, according to statistics from the Taiwan Steel and Iron Industries Association (
Industries that use steel, such as the construction, ship building and auto sectors, said they could not afford the higher prices, causing many projects to be halted. A coalition of steel-using industries plans to hold a protest next Monday calling on the government to suspend steel exports like the South Korea government does.
South Korea decided last week to impose export restrictions on scrap iron and steel bars to ease the effect of price hikes.
The problem is also affecting US steel industries, which may soon ask the Bush administration to limit scrap steel exports, Reuters reported yesterday, citing Robert Stevens, president of the Emergency Steel Scrap Coalition.
"According to law, the US government may prohibit or curtail the export of scrap, if conditions warrant. It is clear all the criteria are met in this case," Stevens said in a statement.
Daniel Liu (劉大年), deputy director of the Chunghua Institution for Economic Research's (中經院) WTO Center, said the suspension of steel exports could prompt retaliation from other WTO members.
"Besides, this measure will only resolve the problem in the short term. I think we should respect the market mechanism on this issue in the long run," Liu said, suggesting that the government could provide low-interest loans for the companies suffering from higher steel prices.
Wu Sheng-feng (
As the prices of raw materials such as steel scrap have risen 220 percent over the past two years, companies should adjust their production according to the new costs, Wu said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (
Legislators also criticized the ministry for failing to stabilize the prices of other construction materials, mainly sand and gravel.
The shortage of sand and gravel since the end of last year has driven up prices, halting building construction projects.
Lin responded that the ministry had lifted the ban on gravel imports from China and had reopened several rivers for quarrying.
By the end of February, Lin said, there were 5.08 million cubic meters of sand and gravel available, meeting the demand of 5 million cubic meters.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
IMAGE SENSORS: The Japanese company would be the controlling shareholder of the venture, with development and production lines to be set up in Kumamoto Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp to create a joint venture to develop and produce next-generation images sensors. The partnership seeks to explore and address emerging opportunities in physical artificial intelligence (AI) applications, such as automotive and robotics, paving the way for innovations and expanded technological advancements, TSMC said in a statement. Sony would be the majority and controlling shareholder of the joint venture, the statement said, adding that the company would set up development and production lines in its newly constructed fab in Kumamoto Prefecture’s
RSS